21st Zarantyr, 1000 YK
- They discuss what to do next, Lozaal wants to acquire some Byeshk. Leonus asks why he wants byeshk, what is it?
- Lozaal just says it's purple and culturally significant. Warden mentions that Droaam does export byeshk, he could buy some.
- Lozaal refuses to buy byeshk, and he asserts that the Droaamites are stealing from the Dhakaani by mining and selling byeshk. This confuses them, and when they question it, Lozaal asks why they don't have the same issue with the Masvirik'uala and the dragonshards. Dax' Athla doesn't say anything.
- Lozaal maintains that he is not going to pay for byeshk, and that the miners shouldn't be mining it. It belongs to the Dhakaani. Warden argues that it belongs to Eberron, as she made it.
- After much debate, they decide to go north into the Byeshk Mountains to look for byeshk. Leonus is unwilling to steal from the miners, so they'll need to find some unattended/unmined.
- They make their way into the mountains!
25th Zarantyr, 1000 YK
- Several days into the mountains, they come across the Valley of Blades.
- Warden asks what Lozaal is intending to do with the byeshk, and says he'd like something. He suggests byeshk engravings, but Lozaal points out that byeshk is incredibly heavy.
- They're a bit concerned about the grooves in the rockfaces of the valley, so they send Nova (Warden's familiar) to take a look.
- Nova doesn't see anything, so they proceed to go through the valley.
- The air erupts into flailing blades, oh shit!
- Lozaal spins his megaton hammer and creates a magnetic pulse, pushing the closest weapons away.
- Dax works out this is a Shavarath manifest zone!
- Warden summons vines to pull the closest weapons away, to get them some more space to think.
- Dax presents a plan: She will dimension door out with Lozaal. Leonus rides on Zedd and flies out of danger, Warden wildshapes and flies, and Kalshana uses her flying broomstick. Moloch, Leonus' skeleton horse, is left behind and gets eviscerated. He tries to make a break for it but he doesn't make it.
- Dax shames Leonus for not dismissing the horse and allowing him to die violently. Leonus is like "he's dead, he doesn't feel it". Dax argues that Zedd is the spirit of a dead wyvern, given flesh by her power, and Zedd feels pain. Leonus maintains that Moloch does not feel pain, he's just a dead horse.
- Leonus reveals that this was his 442'd Moloch, which means his horse dies an average of 30 times a year. Moloch dies every couple weeks, he's died twice in the last 7 days!
- Lozaal spots some byeshk in the valley, prompting a discussion about trying to get it and maybe turning Kal into a smoothie.
- Lozaal makes another comment on Moloch dying, and Leonus ragesummons Moloch. Moloch 443rd reporting for duty.
- While Leonus was summoning Moloch 443, the blade storm ended.
- They go round the valley, not risking the bladestorm again.
26th Zarantyr, 1000 YK
- They find a mine! There is screaming coming from inside, like loads of discordant voices crying out in pain.
- They slowly enter the mine, and Lozaal gives Leonus grief for bringing the horse in. What if he dies again!?
- "What if we don't step on traps?"
- They walk into the mine a while, and see a light source ahead. Lozaal sees spores, and warns the group.
- Dax and Warden go ahead, holding their breath to avoid breathing in spores.
- Warden encounters a mushroom he's never seen before! He tries to take a cutting but the mushroom shrivels away from him when he touches it, and stops glowing. Weird.
- They cross the river, Dax flies over to avoid touching it. They find some glowing moss, which Warden excitedly scrapes some into a vial! New moss just dropped!
- Dax and Warden move a bit further in, and Dax shines her light into a chamber with tree-sized mushrooms of all kinds, and what seem to be desiccated hobgoblins covered in fungal growths. They are all stood around a glowing pit.
- Dax goes back and tells Lozaal, and he thinks that this mine may have been daelkyr'd by Avassh, the Twister of Roots.
- Dax goes to fetch Warden, who has picked a mushroom. They go back to Lozaal, and Lozaal tells Warden to drop the mushroom. He doesn't.
- Lozaal explains that he thinks the mine was corrupted by Avassh.
- Warden drops the mushroom.
- Leonus doesn't know what a Daelkyr is, Warden "summarizes" in about an hour.
- Warden and Kal mention they met Dyrrn, the Corruptor. Lozaal says they're lying.
- Warden says there's a group of orcs in the swamp called the Gatekeepers, of which Warden is a member.
- Dax clarifies that Warden is not an orc in the swamp. Warden thanks her for the clarification.
- Dax states they probably need to destroy the mushroom colony. Lozaal is concerned that the spores may carry disease.
- Leonus implies that the daelkyr can't be that bad. Lozaal, and Warden, are like "are you saying our history is an exaggeration?"
- Dax points out that Kal lost friends to a servant of the daelkyr.
- Kal brings up again that she met Dyrrn! She really did!
- "You're taking the piss right? This is one of those haha jokes?"
- Warden describes how Dyrrn looked to him, a warforged. Kal disagrees, Dyrrn was a kalashtar.
- Kal threatens to cast Sending right now and contact Dyrrn, to prove it!
- "That is such a Kalshana response."
- Leonus is like, "let's say I trust you, how does it look that the person badmouthing the Red Cross has a Daelkyr on speed dial?"
- Lozaal feels that Leonus isn't understanding the risk, and that downplaying it would be a huge mistake.
- Lozaal theorises that the mine is old, it could've been corrupted during the Age of Dhakaan.
- Warden goes to fetch the mushroom he dropped, and they examine it. It's a new species of mushroom, bioluminescent, but there isn't anything that stands out about it as weird. Other than the fact it moved when Warden poked it, but it hasn't moved since Warden plucked it.
- Lozaal lets out the breath he was holding for the last 5 minutes to prove he could hold his breath.
- Kal gets the Survival Mantle out of her bag, which would let one person not breath.
- Lozaal is going to hold his breath, and investigate the rest of the mine. Kal wears the survival mantle, Leonus is also going to hold his breath (he can for 2 minutes). Dax can hold her breath for 15 minutes as a lizardfolk.
- They proceed into the mine, and take a look into the large chamber with the hobgoblins. The mushroomed people don't react to their presence.
- Warden locates a vein of byeshk, and then Leonus needs to breath so they all sprint back to the entrance. They come up with a plan!
- Lozaal is going to wear the survival mantle, mine the byeshk, and then they can decide what to do about the mushrooms.
- Lozaal mines the byeshk, trying to ignore the screams. Dax stands watch, and after a few minutes one of the mushroom men comes to investigate. It doesn't seem to be hostile, it's just curious!
- Dax goes back to fetch Warden and tells him that a mushroom person is staring at Lozaal.
- They arrive, and the mushroom is sitting on a rock watching Lozaal. It looks at them as they arrive, but they don't do anything, and the mushroom doesn't do anything. It just watches Lozaal mine.
- Lozaal manages to break a chunk of byeshk off, gathering 20 lbs of byeshk.
- They head back to the entrance, and the mushroom man follows them at a distance.
- At the entrance, Kal mind links with the mushroom man and have a...strange conversation. It communicates via a beautiful song, rather than words, it transmits feelings. It tries to get them to breathe in the spores.
- "Hey Leonus! What do you think, you wanna be a mushroom man?"
- "Fuck no I don't wanna be a mushroom man! Obviously!"
- Leonus says part of him wants to kill the mushroom entity, to put it out of its misery, and this spooks it.
- "It's fine for you guys to go in the hole but I wanna hug one mushroom man and I'm being unreasonable" - Kal
- Dax tries to convey a feeling of sunlight and jungle to the mushroom, which makes it puff up. Then she asks if it's ever left the cave. It seems confused.
- The mushroom seems to express disappointment that they weren't what it was waiting for. Dax thanks it for its time and they leave.
- They will be talking about this.